Autobiography, Grades 2-5
Last week I read George Ancona’s story in the Meet the Author series by Richard C. Owen Publishers and I loved it. Today I read Janet Wong’s story. I find myself hooked. Completely. I love this series!
Before It Wriggles Away is a completely engaging story written by children’s book author Janet S. Wong. In it she tells of how growing up she never thought she’d write books. She tells how she fell into writing and of how happy it has made her, how much she loves it. Ms. Wong tells how she changed careers when she found how much she loved writing. She then went back to school and had a great teacher who turned her dislike of poetry into a love of it, inspiring her to become a poet.
The story is a simple one but it’s a great one. The whole writing process of this amazing author is told in words and photographs. Janet Wong tells of writing poetry, how she gets ideas and wandering thoughts that eventually become a story or poem. It’s completely fascinating.
Before It Wriggles Away is written for children in grades 2-5 but I feel that adults, especially those interested in writing, are going to find this and others in the Meet the Author series completely necessary to their library. I certainly do.
What a great project this is! How fascinating and wondrous it is to peek into the lives of these authors and what makes them tick. How inspiring to young children.
The authors I’ve read (so far only two) make writing an impossible dream-come-true, something completely do-able and accessible. That’s inspiring. These books aren’t preachy or textbookish, they are interesting and fun and very, very likeable. Highly recommended.
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